The Charm of Soul Pets (WN)
chapter-358

The northern part of the Ancient Wasteland was a boundless desert.

The earth that was completely covered b yellow sand didn’t have the Ancient Wasteland’s chilly gale, but it had a scorching heat that was hard to bear.

There were golden sand dunes, a golden sun, and a continuous golden ground. Upon stepping here and looking forward, ostensibly no other colors could be seen except for the incomparable blue color of the clean sky at the end of the horizon. Against this golden sand world, it appeared as a clear dividing line that formed an incomparably vast and natural painting that was full of magnificent beauty.

Only, in such a calm and beautiful scene, there would be some hidden danger...

……

Chu Mu had found a place in the Ancient Wasteland to avoid danger and rested for an entire seven days. Afterwards, he spend another seven days before stepping into this scorching sandy ground.

Opening up the map, he saw a large spot of yellow as an indicator on the map and, he suddenly felt that the map in his hands was of no use since all that was around him was sandy ground and he was unable to use any objects to reference with the map. Moreover, he was unable to determine where he was on the map.

“A thousand Wild Desert Scorpions. I don’t know how long this fight will take…” Chu Mu put down the map and stared into the distance of this yellow desert.

From what Chu Mu could see, aside from sand, there was sand. He didn’t see any soul pets and it was very hard for him to determine his location from the map. Thus, Chu MU could only continue walking forward and perhaps he would encounter the Wild Sand Scorpion territory

The mission had mentioned that there were a limited number of soul pet species residing in this northern end of the Ancient Wasteland. The Wild Desert Scorpions were further a native resident of this sandy territory and normally once one entered the desert, he or she would be able to see these soul pets wandering the desert.

“Yi~~~~”

A sharp cry suddenly came down from the sky. An enormous wing type soul pet flapped its wings and streaked across the sky, leaving behind a red trail...

Chu Mu looked up and saw a red wing type soul pet soaring across the blue sky. He then looked down and glanced at the yellow sand that was hard to walk through...

“It seems that a winged type soul pet is necessary.” muttered Chu Mu.

“Wu wu~~~~~~” Mo Xie nodded her head in emphatic agreement. Mo Xie felt that if Chu Mu had a wing type soul pet, she would be able to maintain her pitiful appearance while standing on the wing type soul pet’s head as it soared across the sky. She would be able to feel the wind blowing against her,and it probably would be a very enjoyable experience.

Chu Mu could ride Mo Xie, the Night Thunder Dream Beast, and Zhan Ye. The Night Thunder Dream Beast and Zhan Ye both had the dark attribute and it would be extremely unfitting to ride them in this scorching desert. Therefore, Chu Mu could only ride on Mo Xie as he proceeded forth.

The heat of the desert had no effect on the fire attribute Mo Xie. Since Mo Xie’s endurance was far from Night’s, when night arrived, Chu Mu would definitely still switch to Night as he proceeded.

“We’ll probably end up staying here for a period of time now. I hope that the Wild Desert Scorpions aren’t too powerful.” Chu Mu said to Mo Xie.

“Wu wu~~ Wu wu~~~~” Mo Xie indicated that she wanted to go back to the city and comfortably immerse herself in a hot bath and wash off the stinking smell on her body.

After one hill was another hill. It was endless. Chu Mu felt that he had fallen into a completely identical world, and the feeling of magnificence he got from the desert at the very beginning slowly became a vacant blankness.

At the beginning, when he continued forward, when he saw that everything was exactly the same, he felt a bit surprised or infatuated by this special scenery. However, as he continuously walked for one day, all he saw was yellow sand which couldn’t help but produce the feeling of weariness whilst also easily making someone lose oneself in an endless place. Virtually, it would also create an indescribable fear in people's’ hearts.

“Wu wu wu~~~~”

On the second day, Mo Xie had become slightly listless, as nothing was more monotonous and dull as continuously walking in a desert. As she walked and walked, Mo Xie’s head was already drooped, and she slowly dragged her body forward.

Chu Mu didn’t ride on Mo Xie and instead walked onwards. Compared to Mo Xie, his state of mind was still relatively normal. Right now, his soul power had already recovered to its peak, and the desert’s heat ostensibly had no effect on him.

Chu Mu’s soul was in a perpetually high temperature state, and he was already used to the scorching heat. This sort of heat in the outside world was evidently insignificant to him.

“Zhi zhi~~~~~~”

Suddenly, a weak voice was heard from a certain direction!

When she heard the noise, Mo Xie’s ears instantly perked up. Her dull pupils released a radiance and she spun her head in all four directions in search for the origin of the noise.

Chu Mu had also heard the noise. After he released his soul remembrance, he quickly locked onto a creature slowly digging its way out of the sand underneath the sand dune he was walking on!

Chu Mu felt a wave of happiness as the creature crawling out to bask in the sunshine happened to be a Wild Desert Scorpion with a grey keratin armor!

He had walked for so long before finally encountering a Wild Desert Scorpion. This meant that he was already very close to their habitat!

“Mo Xie, go and exercise your muscles!” Chu Mu knew that Mo Xie felt so bored she was about to fall asleep. Thus, he gave her an order and had her kill the Wild Desert Scorpion.

This Wild Desert Scorpion was seemed to be about the eighth phase fourth stage. and wasn’t that different from Mo Xie in phase and stage. However, Mo Xie was a monarch while the Wild Desert Scorpion was a commander. Therefore, it was easy as flipping her palm for Mo Xie to kill it.

“Wu wu wu~~~~~~~”

Mo Xie let out an eminently excited shout, and she immediately broke into a run. A captivating red color of royal flames were on her paws as she sped down the hill. Her nine long silver tails fluttered behind her as she ran. She was both elegant and noble while also carrying the wildness of a fox monarch!

Wild Desert Scorpion: Demon world - bug type - Scorpion species - Wild Desert Scorpion subspecies - commander rank

The eighth phase Wild Desert Scorpion was an enormous creature that reached five meters in length. If it supported its body up, it would be two meters high. Its body was covered by a thick layer of gold-like grey armor. The sharp armor was visibly on its scorpion pincers, front limbs, hind limbs and tail. On top of the sharp jags were clear grey spurs.

There seemingly was no spot on its body where there wasn’t a weapon, and the most terrifying thing was still its red scorpion tail that looked like several thick chains wrung together. From one end to the other hook end was a dark red color that evidently possessed extreme poison. As long as it managed to break open the skin, the poison would penetrate the soul pet’s body.

From what the mission indicated, the might of the poison was different depending on the Wild Desert Scorpion’s phase and stage! Old Li had also informed Chu Mu that this Wild Desert Scorpion’s poison was at least the third level, equivalent of the strength crystallizations of towering ice and natural wood.

In order to come here, Chu Mu had brought at least a hundred bottles of detoxification. The problem of poison wasn’t much of a worry to Chu Mu.

“Approximately how much poison can I gather from killing an eighth phase Wild Desert Scorpion?” Chu Mu asked Old Li.

“About one portion.” responded Old Li.

“...” Chu Mu was speechless for a moment. If he could only gather a portion of poison from one eighth phase Wild Desert Scorpion, then wouldn’t he have to kill a thousand eighth phase Wild Desert Scorpions in this desert?

Wild Desert Scorpions weren’t like servant rank soul pets that were present everywhere and a thousand of them could be found in a group anywhere he walked. Even disregarding how long a thousand eighth phase Wild Desert Scorpions would take to kill, merely finding a thousand Wild Desert Scorpions would probably take several months or even longer...

“How could an eighth rank mission be so easy? If young master wants to finish this mission faster, you can continue walking further in. There should be a place there that is full of Wild Desert Scorpions.” said Old Li.

“What place?” Chu Mu remembered that there wasn’t a special place depicted on the map of the desert. Yet, Old Li’s tone seemed to indicate he knew something.

“This desert is split into two regions: Qiansha Region and Housha Region [TL: Literally means front desert region and back desert region]. Qiansha Region is the region that humans know of, and is a place that a few soul pet trainers will occasionally step into. As for Housha Region, it is the most terrifying area of the eighth rank bewildering world. A few tens of years ago, Housha Region was the habitat of the eighth phase bewildering world’s kingdom lord. The Ancient Wasteland has since changed lords, but the soul pets residing in Housha Region are still extremely strong. Ostensibly no one has stepped there and I’m sure that you will be able to find Wild Desert Scorpions scattered everywhere like an army there…” said Old Li.

“What creature is the Ancient Wasteland’s lord?” asked Chu Mu curiously.

Every bewildering world’s kingdom lord was almost always an existence that humans found very hard to defeat. Even several outstanding statused soul pet trainers would rarely barge intrude the habitat of a bewildering world’s kingdom lord unless there truly was an enormous enticement there.

Of course, even if a soul pet trainer was stronger than a bewildering world’s kingdom lord and wanted to steal some treasure from its territory, he or she would definitely have to pay an exceptionally painful price.

Old Li shook his head, indicating that he didn’t know what sort of creature the Ancient Wasteland’s lord was.

“Wu wu wu wu~~~~~”

Chu Mu was in the process of asking Old Li about Housha Region when he suddenly heard Mo Xie let out an anxious shout. Immediately after, he found that Mo Xie was running up the hill at extremely speed and ran back to his side.

“How’d you deal with it so fast? Did you waste physical power and use an excessive eighth rank technique?” Chu MU was about to scold Mo Xie not to abuse techniques when fighting weaker opponents when he quickly realized there was something wrong with the situation.

“Zhi zhi zhi zhi~~~~~~~~”

Suddenly, the sounds of Wild Desert Scorpions multiplied and Chu Mu instantly looked out before discovering that visible movement was occurring in the sand around that Wild Desert Scorpion. A dozen Wild Desert Scorpions had dug out of the sand and their malevolent and sharp bodies shimmered in the scorching sun.

“Wu wu wu~~~Wu wu~~~~~~”

Mo Xie was just planned on killing that one Wild Desert Scorpion when her powerful vigilance rapidly detected abnormality underneath her paws. She realized that she had intruded on a Wild Desert Scorpion territory alone and thus she fled back in grievance and had Chu Mu summon more soul pets to fight together.